Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924

Melanie Gustafson

Oct 2001 · University of Illinois Press

About this ebook

Acclaimed as groundbreaking since its publication, Women and the Republican Party, 1854-1924 explores the forces that propelled women to partisan activism in an era of widespread disfranchisement and provides a new perspective on how women fashioned their political strategies and identities before and after 1920.

Melanie Susan Gustafson examines women's partisan history against the backdrop of women's political culture. Contesting the accepted notion that women were uninvolved in political parties before gaining the vote, Gustafson reveals the length and depth of women's partisan activism between the founding of the Republican Party, whose abolitionist agenda captured the loyalty of many women, and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Her account also looks at the complex interplay of partisan and nonpartisan activity; the fierce debates among women about how to best use their influence; the ebb and flow of enthusiasm for women's participation; and the third parties that fused the civic world of reform organizations with the electoral world of voting and legislation.

About the author

Melanie Susan Gustafson is a professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Coordinator of Transfer Affairs, Study Abroad, at the University of Vermont. She is the coauthor of We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties, 1880-1960.